Of the transmission of Firmness in the PIKES, Joshua Coffin writes as follows::

"Gen. Zebulon Pike, a native of New Jersey, a brave officer in the last war with Great Britian, who was killed at the battle of Queenston, was a descendant of Capt. Pike, who emigrated to New Jersey, from Newbury, Massachusetts, about 1666. This Capt. Pike was brave and intelligent, and noted for his skill and enterprise in the Indian wars. From John Pike, who emigrated to New Jersey, down to their descendants at the present time, nearly all of them have been distinguished for clearness of intellect, firmness of purpose, self-possession, and indomitable courage. Nicholas Pike, the old schoolmaster and mathematician; Alfred Pike, also a schoolmaster and mathematician-now in Newburyport—a resolute, forcible, bold, energetic man; Albert Pike, Esq., formerly of Newburyport, but now of Little Rock, Arkansas-whose 'Hymns to Callimachus' have been published in Blackwood's Magazine, with commendation, and which are really splendid specimens of poetry,-these, and many others, are descendants of John Pike. So marked is the Firmness of this family, that the people of Newbury call it 'PIKEISM.'"

Pike's "Arithmetic," which has doubtless taxed the brains of some readers, for weeks and months, was composed by one of this mathematical family. The martial spirit also runs in it.

But why multiply cases? Is not our proof of each of these points ABSOLUTE, and our illustration abundantly copious? Nor have we dwelt thus long merely on account of these points themselves, but that we may render our foundation as firm as the laws of nature, so that subsequent conclusions may be proportionably certain and forcible.

363.

SECTION VI.

THE MORAL FACULTIES TRANSMITTED.

GENERAL AND SPECIFIC CAST OF RELIGIOUS FEELING HEREDITARY.

NEARLY or quite all eminently pious clergymen, of the present and past ages, have had devotedly religious parents, and especially MOTHERS, who, as Hannah did Samuel, have dedicated them to God" from the womb." Many a stream of fervent piety and goodness have had their fountain in a mother's

prayerful spirit and a father's love of religion. So uniformly is this the case, that I know of no exceptions. Indeed, the biographies of good men generally begin with stating the religious zeal of one or both their parents.

TIMOTHY possessed, doubtless by inheritance, "that unfeigned faith which had dwelt first in his grandmother Lois, and in his mother Eunice."

Though Bishop HALL, Rev. JOHN NEWTON, PHILIP HENRY, HERBERT, HOOKER, PAYSON, and others, might be cited in confirmation of this law, yet the case of DR. DODDRIDGE deserves especial remark. His mother was daughter of Rev. John Bourman, of Prague, Bohemia, who, obliged, in consequence of religious persecution, to renounce protestantism or emigrate, preferred the latter, painful as was the consequent separation from friends and loss of most of his estate, just as he was beginning to enjoy both. He was a godly preacher, and left an only daughter, the mother of Dr. D., who writes thus:

“I was brought up in the early knowledge of religion by my pious parents, who were, in their character, very worthy of their BIRTH and education; I well remember that my mother taught me the history of the Old and New Testament before I could read, by the assistance of some blue Dutch tiles in the chimney-place of the room where we commonly sat; and the WISE and PIOUS reflections she made upon these stories, were the means of enforcing such good impressions on my heart, as never afterwards wore out."

As he lost both his parents when only thirteen years old, his moral organs must have been hereditarily large, or they would not have thus imbibed and retained these early religious impressions.

HENRY IV., KING OF FRANCE,

Was probably the best and most beloved monarch who ever occupied the throne of that empire, and his sister, Catharine of Navarre, led an eminently religious and virtuous life, in the midst of a profligate court. Jane D'Albert was a most excellent woman, and her parents, the illustrious Margaret, Queen of Navarre, and her excellent and talented husband, Henry D'Albert, King Henry's maternal grand-parents, were remarkable for their goodness and religious devotion.

THE PERRYS, TAPPANS, AND BASSES.

183

COMMODORE 0. H. PERRY AND ANCESTRY,

Were eminently religious. Freeman Perry, the commodore's grandfather, heard of his grandson's brilliant achievement, on his death bed, and exulted greatly in the victory, but most of all in the thanks and reliance ascribed by his courageous descendant to a Superior Power instead of to his own might, expressed in the few lines of the commodore's dispatch. "It affected him even to tears, so that he required it to be read to him over and over again, and the words, 'It has pleased the Almighty' lingered on his lips and blended with his latest prayers for the prosperity of his descendants."

The fact that his father, C. R. Perry, was a captain, that he was remarkably cool in battle, and especially that he stood in cool but eloquent composure to be shot at in a duel by Heath, without returning the fire, indicates the hereditary descent of the martial spirit, if not of courage.

Mrs. TAPPAN, already mentioned under the head of longevity 319, was exceedingly devout, as all her letters abundantly attest, and the author knows one of her grandsons who is so religious as to be almost fanatical, and prayed so loud and earnestly as to be heard all through his end of the college edi. fice, so as often to be considered a nuisance. His father is also eminently devout, and gives much to benevolent objects, and the moral organs of two of his sisters are very large. Most of her nine children and sixty-two grandchildren—another instance of the entailment of the prolific propensity 353, have been hopefully converted, and are zealous in religion. Most of the ALDEN family also, already alluded to 319 have been eminent for piety and devotion, and many of the men ministers or deacons.

Mrs. BASS, of Vermont, was a most godly woman-one in an age for fervent piety-and most of a very large list of her descendants united with churches at an early age, and have followed in her prayerful footsteps.

Nor does the religious predisposition merely run in families, but also, as in the case of insanity 343 344 and appetite 356, the descendants manifest the same moral TONE AND CAST of

religion evinced in the ancestry. In other words, particular KINDS of religious feeling are transmitted.

364. SPECIFIC MORAL FACULTIES HEREDITARY.

The ROGERS family furnish a remarkable proof and illus tration of this hereditary law. History informs us that JOHN ROGERS, the first martyr in "the bloody Mary's" reign, along with his great religious zeal, declaimed vehemently against the religious ABUSES of his time, and in consequence was condemned to the stake.

The Marlboro' Hotel, of Boston, the first and for a long time the only respectable religious and temperance house in this country, and the only one I ever knew in which family wor ship was daily maintained, in which all the boarders were invited to partake, was kept by Mr. Rogers, a tenth lineal descendant of the martyr. He had a strong desire to preach, but was prevented by an affection of the throat, and is a most benevolent and eminently religious man. He now conducts the Delavan Temperance House, Albany, doubtless on the same religious principles.

NATHANIEL P. ROGERS, former editor of the Herald of Freedom, and author of the letters in the Tribune signed the "Old Man of the Mountain," one of the most cogent and caustic writers of his day, was from the same stock, and amply endowed with the same evil-rebuking and reformatory spirit with the martyr. John R. French thus writes of him :

"Mr. Rogers was a son of Dr. John Rogers of Plymouth in this State, where he was born, June 3, 1794. His father was a highly respectable physician, a man of brilliant intellect and superior education, a graduate of Harvard College of the class of 1777, and a son of the Rev. John Rogers of Leominster, Mass., a clergyman in his day somewhat celebrated for his talents and independence in religious faith and rebellion against ecclesiastical domination. Mr. Rogers was able to trace his ancestry back to the Smithfield Mar tyr, through eight or nine generations, by a continuous line of John Rogerses, and with two exceptions, clergymen. Those who have seen both our deceased friend and a portrait of the Martyr, hanging in the halls of the Am. Antiquarian Society at Worcester, could ot have failed to have noticed a great resemblance in the shape of e face and head, in the eye, complexion, and the general expres

sion of the two men. Mr. Rogers' mother, an intelligent and quite active old lady, still lives at the advanced age of 86, to mourn the son of her strong affection."

It thus seems that he inherits his MENTALITY, as well as looks, from the martyr. In Boston, the author examined his head in public, without knowing him, and found a most powerful temperament, tremendous Combativeness and Firmness, very large Benevolence, large Destructiveness and Friendship, little Secretiveness, and none too much Cautiousness or Approbativeness, with great Sublimity, a powerful intellect, especially large Comparison, and an uneven head, which indicates an uneven character.

The minister, whose epitaph follows, evinced the same bold, fearless, reformatory, and denunciatory spirit, as well as adherence to RIGHT, in spite of consequences, which have always characterized the Rogers family. It was copied from a tombstone in a grave-yard, in Exeter, New Hampshire.

"Here lie the remains of the Rev. Daniel Rogers, pastor of a church gathered in this place in 1748, who died December 9th, aged seventy-eight years. He had been, for many years, a tutor in Harvard College; was a pious and faithful minister of Jesus Christ, and a worthy son of the Rev. John Rogers, pastor of the first church in Ipswich, who died December 28th, 1745; who was son of John Rogers of the same place, physician and preacher of God's word, and president of Harvard College, who died July 2d, 1684, aged fifty-four years; who was the eldest son of the Rev. Nathaniel Rogers, who came from England in 1636, and settled in Ipswich, as colleague pastor with the Rev. Nathaniel Ward, and died July 12th, 1655, aged fifty-seven years; who was son of the Rev. John Rogers, a famous minister of God's word at Dedham, England, who died October 18th, 1639, aged sixty-seven years; who was grandson of John Rogers, of London, prebendary of St. Paul's, vicar of St. Sepulchre's, and reader of divinity; who was burned at Smithfield, February 14th, 1555—first martyr of Queen Mary's reign."

It thus appears that all his ancestors have been reverends, one possibly excepted.

The Rogerses generally, like their progenitor, have large families 353.

The FIELD family, from whom Deacon Phineas Field, formerly of Northfield, Massachusetts, quite extensively known in